1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a consumable supplying member or a toner container to be mounted in a consumable supplying member receiving apparatus or an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine or a complex machine having functions of these apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a printer includes a developing mechanism for supplying toner particles to an image bearing member and a toner container for replenishing the developing mechanism with the toner particles. This toner container has a container main body for storing the toner particles and is normally detachably mounted in a main body of the image forming apparatus so as to be replaceable as the toner is used up. This holds true for an ink cartridge of the ink-jet type in a printer or the like.
Generally, an image forming apparatus has a casing structure, and component members such as the above image bearing member, developing mechanism and toner container are accommodated in the casing so as not to be visible from the outside (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-23347). Upon replacing the toner container, a user opens an opening cover of the casing, takes the used toner container out from the inside of the casing, mounts a new toner container and closes the opening cover. The user can see the toner container only when the opening cover is open.
In a conventional image forming apparatus, a user cannot know which toner container is actually mounted with the opening cover closed. In other words, the manufacturer and model number of the toner container mounted in the main body of the image forming apparatus cannot be known, and the opening cover had to be opened in order to know these. Accordingly, the user had to confirm the model number and the like by opening the opening cover every time despite its cumbersomeness, for example, in the case of ordering a new toner container or in the case of being required to notify the model number of the toner container at the time of requesting maintenance.
Accordingly, it may be thought to provide a window on a casing constituting an image forming apparatus and to enable a user to confirm a part of a mounted toner container from the outside. However, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a photoconductive drum is present in an apparatus main body, wherefore light incident through the window might adversely affect an image forming operation in the case of providing the window. Further, parts desired not to be exposed to light are installed in the apparatus main body.